Insurance Ireland broke EU competition rules

The European Commission has found in a preliminary judgement that the industry group delayed some insurers access to a key database

Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President, said her team had concerns over Insurance Ireland’s approach to granting or denying access to the database. Picture: AFP/Getty Images

Insurance Ireland broke EU competition rules by delaying or “de facto” denying some insurers access to a key database of information, the European Commission has found in a preliminary judgement.

The Commission said the lack of access to the Insurance Link database had “the effect of placing companies at a competitive disadvantage on the Irish motor vehicle insurance market in comparison to companies that have access to the database”.

“This affects negatively costs, quality of ...